Monthly Archives: August 2010

Here is day two in our paper week! Today we are making beautiful paper flowers, like the ones I made for this baby shower. The difference with this project is I’m using vintage music sheets, which is a bit thinner paper and thus these have a little less structure to them. So, the thicker the paper, the more sculptural your flower will look.

You will need: paper, hot glue gun, cardboard, scissors

Step 1: Cut out a half moon shape out of cardboard (an old cereal box will do). This will be your template for the flower petal.

Step 4 & 5: Trace and cut out your petals. You will need 8-10 petals to make a full flower.

Step 5 & 6: Cut out a circular shape out of cardboard as your base. Begin hot glueing your petals one by one using a small dab of glue in the center only. Continue this with all your petals, staggering their placement evenly.

This should be what you end up with!

Again, use this idea as a jumping point for your own projects. These can be made in all different sizes, and petal shapes. You can also embellish the center of your flowers with large buttons.

Alrighty, let me know how you like paper week! I’ll be posting another great project tomorrow.

After last weeks baby shower post, I had several requests for a tutorial on the pinwheels I created. So I thought it would be neat to do an entire week of projects that use nothing but paper. First up, pinwheels!

Step 1: You’ll need 8 sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper to make a large pinwheel. Start by taking the paper (portrait, not landscape orientation) and accordion folding it, making the folds about 1 inch wide. (To speed up this process, you can fold two at a time.)

Step 2: After folding all 8 sheets, you’ll want to take them one by one and cut a round edge on one of the sides. Or you can skip this step, but I love mine looking a little bit curvier.

Step 3: Next start taping the folded pieces of paper together using your double sided tape.

Step 4: Continue step 3 until you have all 8 pieces taped together creating one long strip of folded paper.

Step 5: Fan out the strip in a round shape creating a circle and close it up using double sided tape.

Step 6: Cut out a circle of cardboard from a used cereal box and hot glue to the back of your pinwheel. This will give it stability and then you can punch a hole and hang it or press a thumb tack in to stick it on the wall.

And you are done! To make the smaller pinwheel, just cut an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper in half long ways, giving you two 4.25 x 11 strips of paper. You will need a total of 4 of these strips to make a pinwheel. Experiment with different sizes, and papers with patterns! Try stacking the smaller ones on the larger to create a layered effect. Another idea is to use a decorative edge punch before folding to give the outer edge some added charm. You can do no wrong with these.

Hey ya! Today is my b-day and my gift from my husband is FREE TIME with no kids. So I’m blogging! Ha! It’s been a great day so far.

Anyway, I’ve felt so fulfilled lately since I’ve been able to work on some creative things again. Recently, I hosted a baby shower for a friend of mine and I got to work on invitations and decor. I loved it! Many of my friends asked how I did it with a new baby…my answer: I planned a month and a half in advance, and did a little bit each day. Here are some of the highlights:

Invitations – I loved how these turned out. They are bright, colorful and so pretty.

Favors and party decor – I really didn’t spend a dime on decorations. I used colored paper that I had on hand to create pinwheels of different sizes, large paper flowers, confetti garland and a name garland. It’s amazing what you can do with paper!

More pinwheels! So easy to make and so inexpensive, but really creates a festive look!

Cupcakes by a friend of the expectant mama’s, and beautiful flowers.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of the decor…I can post a tutorial if I get enough requests. *Wink*

I’ve got a fun giveaway for you today! Two of my friends just started etsy shops and agreed to give away some swag! There will be a total of 4 winners. The first will receive an adorable handmade onesie from RoseyKate.

(Yes, this is my little cutie modeling a onesie by RoseyKate)

The other three winners will each receive one cutie patootie hair accessory from ArtsyPeacock. See more pics of her stuff here.

To enter, just leave a comment of what your favorite memory/activity this summer was and which prize you’d like to win. I will randomly pick the winners Tuesday, the 24th. Good luck!

Hello! Thought I’d share a quick fun project with you. Yes, I actually had a few moments to make something for myself today!

My baby who is nine weeks old is still eating about every TWO hours. He’s 11 lbs and 10 oz at his last Dr. visit. He’s gettin’ some rolls and they are oh so cute and ultra squeezable.

Anyway, back to the project. I had this headband I didn’t really wear anymore and I decided to fashion it into something I’d like better. I stripped off the original fabric and that left just a thick headband. I hotglued some jersey knit fabric around it and then glued a handmade houndstooth bow on the side.

Cute! Now this is something I’ll wear! What projects have you been up to lately?